Bad Names: How Can Parents Do This To Their Children?

Some people don’t like their names. They wish their parents had named them “Melissa” instead of “Margaret,” or that they had a better/more normal middle name, something like “Marie,” the most popular middle name in my seventh grade class. And then there are those who need to change their name in order to function normally in society. A 9-year-old girl in New Zealand has been made a ward of the court so that she can change her name from “Talula Does The Hula From Hawaii.” Seriously. Maybe her parents were drunk or high when they came up with the name, but really, is that an excuse for forcing your child to go through life with that name? The poor girl is so embarrassed by her given name that she is known among her friends as “K.” And yet, there are actually people who change their names from normal to bizarre. CNN reports that a guy in Illinois legally changed his first name to “In God” and his last to “We Trust.” Bet that helps him pick up the ladies. [CNN]